Skip to main content

39th game back on the agenda

The Premier League meest face-to-face again at the Landmark Hotel in London’s Marylebone last week, and the continuing growth of the competition was a particular area of focus.

The US, China, India, Brazil and Indonesia have been identified as markets in which the Premier League could appeal to new fans and an enhanced pre-season tournament next summer in the States has been discussed as an initial step.

Longer term, however, one of the key aspects in the League’s attempts to gain greater global appeal is playing competitive matches on foreign soil. A possible “roadmap for meaningful matches abroad” was mentioned last week, after “taking Premier League matches to the world” was discussed at June’s AGM.

It would take several years for a top-flight match outside of England to come to fruition but it is interesting that the idea could be on the table following the collapse of the European Super League, more than a decade after former Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore first floated the idea of the “39th game”.

In 2008, the Premier League looked at playing an extra round of matches abroad at five different venues, with clubs set to earn around £5 million per game.

UEFA, FIFA and the FA all opposed the idea and it was scrapped but Scudamore remained supportive, saying in August 2014: “It will happen at some point.”   In the meantime, some kind of special pre-season competition seems more likely.

If it did it would be a further step in the globalisation of football as argued in my recent book Political Football.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more